Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star in Sony's “Anyone But You.”
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Released just before the busy Christmas movie season, sony “Anyone But You” seemed destined to be anything but a box office hit, especially after it grossed just $6 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.
However, the film's box office success was as slow as the romance between its lead characters played by rising stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.
In the seven weeks since, the romantic comedy has grossed $170 million worldwide, including $80 million in domestic theaters, according to Comscore data. The film had a reported budget of only $25 million.
An unexpected hit at the box office, the film is a “healthy sign” for the romantic comedy genre and other mid-budget Hollywood films, said Scott Meslow, author of “From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again). ) of the Romantic Comedy.” But it remains to be seen whether other romantic comedies can repeat their success..
As studios pursued big-budget superhero movies following the success of Marvel's interconnected cinematic universe, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and DC Studios' “Man of Steel,” the romantic comedy found itself on the cutting room floor, and then as filler for streaming services. .
Between 2004 and 2010, Hollywood consistently released between 15 and 25 romantic or romantic comedy films each year. But from 2011 through last year, there were fewer than 15 new rom-com or romance releases per year, and most years fell below 10.
Meslow said there was no “killshot” romantic comedy film or film series that caused the genre's decline in theatrical releases.
Instead, it came after media companies changed their priorities.
“Studios are, at the end of the day, businesses,” Will Gluck, writer-director of “Anything But You” and filmmaker behind “Easy A” and “Friends with Benefits,” told CNBC. “So if they start to see something succeed, they'll try to replicate that success. So I don't think there's an inherent bias against rom-coms and comedies.”
Studios viewed action or superhero movies with $200 million budgets and billions in box office profits as a priority over lower-budget films, which may have been profitable, but less so in comparison. Now, as superheroes fall from favor and Wall Street wants to see profitability from direct-to-consumer streaming platforms, the romantic comedy genre is poised to make a comeback.
Gluck's “Anyone But You” proves that audiences will continue to attend romantic comedies in theaters.
The film's performance builds on the success of two 2022 romantic comedies. paramount “The Lost City” generated nearly $200 million at the global box office on a budget of less than $75 million. universal “Ticket to Paradise” grossed nearly $170 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.
While “Anyone But You” got off to a slow start at the box office, ticket sales increased in both its second and third weekends in theaters. And when sales began to decline, they fell only 27% or less in each of the next five weeks. Typically, movie sales will drop by 50% to 70% each week after their opening weekend.
Gluck attributes much of the film's box office popularity to word of mouth and the power of TikTok.
Following its release, users of the social media platform began making short videos of themselves singing and dancing to Natasha Bedingfield's 2004 single, “Unwriting.” The song is featured in the film and the cast and crew are seen singing and dancing to it during the end credits.
“I wouldn't be surprised at all if this became a textbook case of modern Hollywood marketing,” Meslow said. “It's really taken advantage of TikTok and the presence of the stars better than probably any movie ever released.”
Hollywood will now find out if “Anyone But You” is a unicorn or a replicable theatrical strategy. The film benefited from several key factors, including a blockbuster-less January and limited direct competition.
But the industry is already leaning toward a strategy that relies on potential surprise hits like “Anyone But You.”
The major studios have committed to bringing more mid-budget films to theaters. Those films are able to fill the gaps between the biggest films and provide consistent box office receipts. More movies also mean more opportunities for studios to announce future releases to the public.
While some films will still be released only on streaming platforms, Hollywood has rediscovered the importance of cinema as part of overall revenue. The debut of a film in theaters generates expectation and a feeling of quality that accompanies it through on-demand sales and on streaming platforms.
Notably, Sony's “No Hard Feelings,” which grossed $83.8 million worldwide in 2023 on a $45 million budget, became one of the most-watched films on Netflix when it premiered on the platform. in October.
“Anyone But You” is destined for Netflix once it concludes its theatrical run, as part of a streaming distribution deal with Sony signed in 2021.
Gluck, who likes to take on a wide variety of projects, hopes to continue writing and directing films like “Anyone But You” in the future.
“I think I'd rather go for a mid- or low-budget movie than a $200 million movie,” Gluck said. “Because my whole career has been in mid-budget movies. But for me, the fun part is always overperforming. It's always great when expectations are low… it's really fun to get thrown out and overperform.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
